Presumably this is my comeuppance for recently suggesting that Saturdays were getting easier. We have an unusual grid stuffed with a great number of very unfamiliar terms, at least to me.
There’s a theme celebrating the first of the month with WHITE RABBITS, a PINCH and a PUNCH, and also a number of references to boxing and types of punches, such as HAYMAKER, RABBIT and UPPERCUT, alongside many words for stealing.
After doing 15 rounds with Nimrod, I think I’ll need to steal a lie down.
| Across | ||
| 1 | WHITE RABBITS | We’ll 16 17, sort of 17’s good luck today! (5,7) |
| (HIT in WE) + RABBIT‘S. The punch (17) has been pinched (16) by the WE. Something traditionally said on the first day of the month for good luck. | ||
| 8 | HAYMAKER | One’s top and cap removed, tourist gives hand on farm (8) |
| H[o lid]AYMAKER, with the removed “o” being the initial letter of “one”. | ||
| 9 | SENIOR | The first one is unfortunately right (6) |
| (ONE IS)* + R. | ||
| 10 | PURLOIN | Half-inch cut, not entirely clean, to the head (7) |
| PUR[e] + LOIN, as in a cut of meat. | ||
| 12 | TRIUNE | Three-in-one number encapsulating The King and I (6) |
| (R + I) in TUNE. | ||
| 13 | IDO | The language repeatedly heard in wedding ceremony? (3) |
| I DO. An offshoot of Esperanto, apparently. Can’t say it came up frequently when I was studying Linguistics at university. | ||
| 14 | ECUMENIC | Universal Pictures, not a Universal Church in retrospect (8) |
| Reversal of all of (CINEM[a] + U + CE). Fans of Father Ted may have had an advantage with this one. | ||
| 16 | PINCH | Take a little salt with … (5) |
| Two definitions. | ||
| 17 | PUNCH | … a spirited drink once weekly (5) |
| Two definitions. Punch is a former weekly magazine. | ||
| 19 | UPPERCUT | Blow up a canal (8) |
| UP + PER + CUT. | ||
| 21 | OHM | Sacred mantra quelling Henry’s resistance (3) |
| H in OM. | ||
| 22 | OCTAVO | Tax firm going back over books to such an extent (6) |
| (VAT + CO)< + O. | ||
| 23 | SNAFFLE | A bit vulgar, going into auction without advance (7) |
| NAFF in S[a]LE. A jointed bit for horses. | ||
| 25 | GELATI | What may be cool and refreshing on back around lunchtime? (6) |
| LEG< + AT 1. | ||
| 26 | SHOPLIFT | Steal some time at work, during which ring public library (8) |
| (O + PL) in SHIFT. | ||
| 28 | FOURPENNY ONE | Cruciverbalists’ pasta that’s filling – accompanying fine wallop! (9,3) |
| F + OUR + (YON in PENNE). An old term for another type of punch. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | WBA | Needing to be brief, Premiership players ring supervisors (3) |
| Two abbreviations: West Bromwich Abion and the World Boxing Association, who supervise the boxing ring. | ||
| 2 | IZMIR | Aegean naval base is reportedly on edge, looking skyward (5) |
| Homophone of “is” + RIM<. | ||
| 3 | ELKHORN | Coral‘s “shellfish stinger”, trimmings of appetiser removed (7) |
| Difficult if you don’t know your corals, which I don’t. This is from [wh]ELK + HORN[et], so with “whet” removed. Not a device I recall seeing before. | ||
| 4 | AYR | Port broadcast first part of rescue … (3) |
| Homophone of “air”, so presumably a reference to air-sea rescue, which is also referred to at 26 down. | ||
| 5 | BUS STOP | Rudely kiss head and you might get off here (3,4) |
| BUSS + TOP. “Buss” was new to me, so we’re learning a great deal today. | ||
| 6 | TENSIONER | One imposing stretch is clear about 17 (9) |
| (IS + NET) + ONER. | ||
| 7 | ROUNDHOUSE | Plump lady of the night wants to employ Iron Age dwelling (10) |
| ROUND + HO + USE. | ||
| 10 | PICKPOCKET | Mark’s driven Peg around dip (10) |
| POCK in PICKET. | ||
| 11 | NICKUMS | After having to 16 amount, sons lying low (naughty laddies) (7) |
| NICK + SUM, but with the S lowered. Yet another unfamiliar term. | ||
| 15 | MANO A MANO | Master taking on Chomsky – an old, personal confrontation (4,1,4) |
| MA + NOAM Chomsky + AN + O. | ||
| 18 | HOOKIER | 17 and Viz: humour ultimately more like 17’s conk (7) |
| HOOK + IE + [humou]R. Reference to Mr. Punch of “and Judy” fame. | ||
| 20 | PLATOON | Climbing mountain, main components of air have to part company (7) |
| TO in (ALP< + O + N). | ||
| 24 | FOLIO | Painting measuring up 22 x 0.25 (5) |
| (OIL + OF)<. I think the OF comes from “measuring” in the sense of “a person of six foot”, say. | ||
| 26 | SEE | … witness reporting second part of rescue (3) |
| Homophone of “sea”. | ||
| 27 | FEE | Fairy wages? (3) |
| Two definitions. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
Thanks Simon, you deserve that lie down.
This is the second appearance of Nimrod/Io this week, which some might say was cruel and unusual punishment. 🙂 Today’s one didn’t so much pack a punch, it was packed with punches.
Much respect to the mighty hunter.
Thanks Nimrod and Simon
I thought that was an excellent double-themer. And as well as the indicated theft words there was also the unindicated snaffle at 23.
I think Io set me up for Nimrod, so it’s probably as well that today’s graun prize isn’t Enigmatist.
Far too many unfamiliar terms for this to be any fun but thanks for explaining it. Havent had to cheat this much in months and several clues i would never have got. I am sure I am being slow but I don’t follow whee leg comes from in 25 across.
Eric @ 3
In cricket the field is divided nominally into two sides, ON and OFF. The ON side is also referred to as LEG, as the batsman’s legs are that side of the imaginary dividing line.
hth
What’s the definition for ‘White rabbits’at 1 across? Do you white rabbits have some significance on the 1st of the month? I get all the pinch punch stuff.
When I was a child my family always greeted the first day of the month with a cry of ‘Rabbits’ for good luck (might there be a connection with the supposedly lucky rabbit’s foot?). It was important to do so as early as possible, before saying anything else. A friend told me that in her family ‘White rabbits’ was reserved for months with an R in the name.
Aha, so Nimrod placing that one at 1 across is surely no coincidence. Nicely done.
I got the gateway clues which helped, although there were quite a few of the non-themed answers that couldn’t be anything else but that I couldn’t parse (or was so relieved to get that I didn’t try). Finally defeated by NICKUMS, which I’d never heard of, nor had my word finder, which prevented me getting PURLOIN as I had DICTUMS at 11dn (could see where ‘ums’ came from but not ‘dict’).
A challenging way of spending more of the afternoon than I intended; thanks, though, to Nimrod and Simon.
Took a second sitting at least to get over the finish line on this. Looking at it initially made me feel like an absolute novice and it was slow progress after spotting the theme.This made the IO puzzle look approachable by comparison.
He’s a cruel man but fair. Well done that blogger!
Yes, I felt as though I’d gone the full 15 rounds with this one and it took much longer than 45 minutes. In the end I managed to finish all correctly, but really only a TKO rather than the real thing, with a few unfamiliar terms such as PURLOIN and NICKUMS bunged in from the wordplay. HAYMAKER was my favourite.
Incidentally I remember Nimrod using ‘whelk’ in another crossword a few months ago – maybe he’s partial to them. Might be worth keeping in mind for the future.
Thanks to Nimrod and Simon.